The owners originally intended to renovate the existing 1960’s era home on this property.  Unfortunately, every builder they interviewed told them to tear it down.  While exploring their options, they came upon the “Sunset Breezehouse” – a modular, prefabricated design by Michelle Kaufmann Designs.  They visited a prototype unit and it was love at first site.

The Breezehouse is centered around a site-built glass-enclosed breezeway – the BreezeSpace – which “lets the green in” to the main living and dining areas, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior spaces.  Decks at the front and rear of the home further integrate nature and living.  Naturalistic landscaping, by Grace Design Associates, incorporates local and site-found materials to seamlessly blend the home to the land and the larger setting.

The Santa Barbara Breezehouse is unique in its construction.  The units flanking the BreezeSpace were built at a factory in Tacoma, Washington – including the framing, insulation, electrical, flooring, tiles, walls and plumbing components – then transported to Santa Barbara on flatbed trucks and craned into place on the foundation.  This process reduced the amount of on-site waste generated and the total construction time for the project.  Site work was done by local green builders Allen Associates.

Both Energy Star program standards for energy efficient homes and the performance standards of the American Lung Association’s Healthy House program are met in this project.

The original home was deconstructed, diverting as many materials as possible from the landfill through salvage, donation to Habitat for Humanity, and recycling.  Prior to the demolition, the owners offered their home as a canvas for a group of “urban artists”.

List of Green Features:

ENTRY

- Permeable walkways and decking. Front walk is stone set over sand on top of native soil with pebbles in the joints.  Stone on decks is set over standard framing on Dexstone (a rigid grid of recycled plastic used under the stone on the decks to allow water to pass through).  Rainwater falling on these surfaces permeates into the soil providing many benefits: adjacent plants can use the water, accumulated salts are leached from the plant root zone, pollutants in the rainwater are filtered by the soil, the underlying aquifer is recharged and site runoff is minimized.  This helps to reduce the size and velocity of peak flow in the watershed which in turn reduces flooding and erosion.

- Ipe decking and siding. Ipe is an exotic hardwood that is naturally resistant to termites, rot and decay, is eight times harder than California Redwood, and is guaranteed for 20 years without preservatives.  These features, along with its dark brown walnut color, makes it a popular decking material. Ipe comes from South America where it is responsibly harvested from managed forests.

- Corten steel siding. The siding of the house is made out of Corten corrugated steel.  The natural oxidizing finish of the steel gives it a rich color and texture and makes it extremely durable, It is the ultimate no care product because it never has to be painted or refinished.

MASTER BATH

- Pressure assisted water efficient toilets. Over the course of your lifetime, you will most likely flush a toilet about 140,000 times.  Multiplied by a family of four, that figure jumps to half a million flushes.  At 1.6 gallons per flush for a standard toilet, that is a lot of water.  Toilets account for 30% of residential indoor water consumption.  Pressure assisted toilets are hybrids of gravity and flush valve toilets.  A pressurized tank placed inside the porcelain tank compresses a pocket of air and releases pressurized water into the bowl and out the trapway at high velocity. Pressure assisted water efficient toilets use between 10-20% less water than a standard toilet.

- Pre-tiled showers. Part of the prefabrication process includes installation of all finish materials at the factory – even the tile in the showers.  The tile is grouted with the exception of corner joints where there is the possibility of cracking during transportation from the factory to the job site.

- Connections between indoor and outdoor spaces. Numerous windows and nano doors create strong connections between indoor and outdoor spaces.  Views of the garden landscape are seen from every room in the house.

MASTER BEDROOM 

- Ceiling fans. Ceiling fans have been installed to help circulate air and, in conjunction with the numerous operable windows, reduce temperature build up without the use of mechanical air conditioning.  Since warm air rises, adding ceiling fans in different areas of a home can help to keep it cooler and more comfortable.  For maximum energy saving benefits, consider purchasing an Energy Star ceiling fan. These fans circulate an average of 15% more air than other ceiling fans, without sacrificing style or attractiveness. Energy Star ceiling fans are 60% more efficient than an 150 watt incandescent bulb.

BACK DECK 

- LouvreTec Opening Roof System.  The homeowners explored a number of different options to provide shade and reduce heat gain in the outdoor trellis areas of their home.  They selected these adjustable aluminum louvre shades which have transformed the area into a functional year round usable space no matter what the weather.

HALLWAY 

- Andersen French Doors and windows. These Andersen windows and doors have natural wood interiors that offer a combination of beauty and durability.  The exterior of the windows and doors feature a vinyl coating which protects the window’s exterior for decades.  This also eliminates the need to paint—and repaint. The energy efficient Low-E glass reduces heat gain and loss, and helps to keep the interior of the home comfortable year round.  The Low-E glass also reduces the amount of ultraviolet (UV) light that enters the home to 17% - working like sunblock to help protect the home’s interior finishes and furniture from fading and discoloration.

“THE BRAIN” (mechanical room)

- Inverter for 5.4 kW photovoltaic system.  Producing electricity from the sun reduces the use of both fossil fuels and nuclear power. While the initial cost of a photovoltaic system can be expensive, it can be a cost effective investment even before the system “starts paying for itself” - by replacing the cost of monthly electric bills with a payment towards the cost of the PV system.  One of the goals for the owners of this home, was to produce as much of their own energy needs as possible.  A 5.4 kilowatt solar system sits on the roof of this house.  In front of you is the inverter for the PV system – which converts the DC voltage produced by the solar panels into standard AC household voltage so it can be used by common tools and appliances.

- Boiler for radiant space and domestic water heating. Space heating for this home is provided by two systems - an hydronic radiant heating system that heats the breeze space and a forced air system that heats the three modular units.  This compact, high efficiency boiler – a 92.7% AFUE model made by Trinity – heats the water used in both of these systems as well as hot water for showering, washing dishes and washing clothes.

- Energy Star appliances throughout house. These homeowners have selected an energy efficient clothes washer, dryer, refrigerator and dishwasher.  Selecting energy efficient appliances, ideally with the Energy Star label, can reduce your carbon footprint and save you money.  Front-loading washing machines wash clothes better, are more energy efficient and use less water than top-loading machines.  Refrigerators and freezers manufactured today use 30 percent less energy per cubic foot than similar models did in 2001, and 60 percent less per cubic foot than models sold in 1980, thanks to federal efficiency standards. 

KITCHEN

- Engineered oak flooring. Wood floors are beautiful, extremely durable, and easy to maintain.  However, there are resource and environmental concerns with using large amounts of solid hardwood for flooring products.  Engineered floors provide the same look and durability of solid wood floors but are made with a thinner surface layer of hardwood glued to a backing material, commonly pine or alder.  There is typically enough wood veneer in an engineered floor to refinish the floor one or two times (the fact is that only 5% of solid wood floors are refinished more than once).

- HenryBuilt cabinets. Rather than using particle board, the doors, drawer fronts and end panels of these kitchen cabinets are made from FSC-certified certified wheat board.  Wheat board is an agricultural waste product, is rapidly renewable, made with low-VOC adhesives, and does not have any added formaldehyde.  The faces of the cabinets, manufactured by HenryBuilt in Seattle, Wash., are finished with FSC certified solid maple.

LIVINGROOM/BREEZESPACE

-Nano doors, clerestories. The 702 sq. ft. breezeway section has large, retracting glass (nano) doors on two sides of the room that allow natural breezes to flow through and naturally cool the rest of the house.  These doors, together with the large clerestory windows over the nano doors, allow abundant natural light to fill the space making the use of supplemental electric lights almost unnecessary during the day.

- Natural cooling and lighting features of BreezeSpace. This breezeway – constructed on site by Allen Associates - is insulated with recycled content fiberglass insulation, R-19 in the walls and R-38 in the ceiling.  The slate flooring acts as a thermal mass and provides warmth on cooler days.  The slate extends beyond the boundaries of the walls and is the flooring for the patio spaces in the front and rear of the house, creating a strong connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.

BEHIND THE WALLS

- Icynene insulation. The insulation material used in the prefabricated modules is icynene, a two part polyurethane foam product that is sprayed into the framed walls prior to closing them up.  A little bit of icynene goes a long way as it increases in volume 100 times after it is applied.  This product fills the entire wall cavity, and will not sag, shrink or settle over time, offering excellent thermal as well as sound insulation  This product also acts as an air barrier, creating a very “tight” structure.  Icynene achieves its stated insulation rating and is 37 times more effective than fiberglass.

- Concrete with 30% high volume fly ash. Making concrete is one of the most energy intensive processes in the building industry and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.  For every ton of concrete produced there is one ton of global warming CO2 gasses released. Substituting fly ash – a bi-product of coal-fired power plants – for Portland cement (one of the main ingredients of concrete) reduces this environmental impact as well as the amount of raw materials required.  Adding fly ash to the concrete mix also improves its performance, making it stronger, less likely to crack, and more water resistant.  Concrete mixes with as much as 50% fly ash are not uncommon.

LANDSCAPE

- Reused materials. All of the sandstone used in the garden was found on the property.  This eliminated a lot of trucking and gives the landscape a sense of place.  Existing large plant material was retained.  Scrap ipe wood was made into access grates at crawl spaces.  Left over Dexstone (a rigid grid of recycled plastic used under the stone on the decks to allow water to pass through) was used to bridge the decks to the adjacent garden and to create a safe access panel over the existing drainage culvert.  Scrap Corten steel was used for the carport siding.  Finding a way to reuse these materials not only kept them from going to landfill; what once was waste will now see long years of service.

- Plants are from local nurseries (within 15 miles of site) – a huge savings in fuel.  Furthermore, local plants are least likely to introduce diseases and/or pests not found in our area.  Over 95% of the plants are drought-tolerant, greatly reducing water use.  Nursery containers were returned to nurseries for reuse.

- Local recycled mulch is used extensively throughout the garden.  Local mulch travels a much shorter distance than imported mulch and does not carry pests or pathogens foreign to our area.  Made from neighborhood green waste, recycled mulch saves large volumes of bulky material from going to the landfill.   Mulching (covering the soil with a layer of material such as gravel, composted plant material, wood chips, etc.) provides many benefits.  These include retaining soil moisture, moderating soil temperature and maintaining soil porosity, all of which are vital to maintain a healthy soil microbial suite.  Mulching also decreases erosion (soil is protected from impact of rain, runoff and wind).  Finally, organic mulches (those made of plant material) provide beneficial nutrients for both plants and soil microbes.

- Rainwater. Rooftop rainwater, collected into downspouts, is discharged into the adjacent channelized creek.  This was a conscious decision, balancing the need to reduce size and speed of peak runoff and the need to provide clean water to the urban stream system to dilute pollutants in the watershed.  This water can easily be diverted to on-site retention in the future.  Rainwater not falling on roofs is retained on site.  All site pavings are permeable (except the driveway which will be retained until it reaches the end of its useful life then replaced with permeable material).  All drainage is directed to low spots on site flanked by plants that use water when available, but do not require regular watering (high water use/low water demand plants).

- All plants are watered by a highly efficient drip irrigation system.  Long-lived plastic tubing is recyclable and delivers water directly to the plant root zone.  Water loss by evaporation is greatly reduced, competition for water (and nutrients) by weeds is severely limited and wasteful overspray is eliminated.  An automatic irrigation controller is programmed to optimize irrigation run time and time of day water is applied for most efficient use of water and ideal plant health.